The leaders of Chin refugees, who fled military atrocities and economic hardship in Myanmar to take shelter in the Indias northeast state on Wednesday, expressed their gratitude to the hospitality and kindness shown to them by their Mizo brethren here.
This comes after the Young Mizo Association, the states largest and most influential NGO, voiced a serious concern over a US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW)s recent report on the plight of Chin refugees in Mizoram which portrayed the Mizos, and the organisation in particular, as rude and abusive to the Chin refugees.
Maintaining that the HRW had been fed baseless information by some section of the Chin community here to get global sympathy, the YMA leaders met the Chin representatives on Tuesday to discuss the issue to further prevent possible enmity between the Chin migrants and Mizo society.
“We are grateful to the kindness and hospitality being shown to us by our Mizo cousins in Indias Mizoram. We strongly condemn such baseless information provided to the global human rights group that tarnished the image of the Mizos. We will find out who had disseminated such wrong information,” Cheery Zahau, co-ordinator of Women League of Chinland said here Wednesday.
As many of the Chin migrants, forced out of their country by extreme economic hardship, have been accused of unlawful activities, the high crime rate in Mizoram has also been attributed to them. Recently, state home minister R Lalzirliana, has stated that any Myanmarese nationals found guilty of breaking the law of the land would be deported to the military authorities in Myanmar instead of being sent to Mizoram jails.